Student Design Engineer Review

I really enjoyed my year placement with Triumph. The work was, on the whole, extremely interesting and engaging and meant that you actually had to think about what you were doing. You are given a lot of responsibility from the get go which makes you feel valued as a team member but does have its downsides as you may start to feel the stress of the workload.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues, although as a student you do occasionally get the tasks no one else wants to do. However, everyone is extremely friendly and keen to help. There are many meets outside of work such as ride outs, pub, eating out, karting and other activities. You often get asked for help or your own thoughts on things as well as being encouraged to make your own decisions.

Help and guidance was always given when needed. There were a number of CAD training sessions throughout the year and if you were stuck on anything else, virtually anyone in the office would be happy to help, if they were unable to they would at least point you in the right direction of where to look or who to talk to. Induction sessions at the start of the year also introduced you to people from other departments who you will later come to interact with, and so this initial briefing was helpful if you were ever stuck or needed to talk to someone outside of your own department.

My workload was fairly constant and remained pretty substantial throughout the year. There were times when things became a struggle to manage and other times when you may be feeling fairly relaxed. I only ever had to come in early once, by my own choice, and I never had to stay behind to finish work. Overtime was offered on certain pieces of work if you wanted to, but this was never forced and so the workload, although fairly high, remained relatively manageable provided you kept on top of things.

The responsibility given to students throughout the year was equal to that of graduate and design engineers. There was virtually no discrepancy between the levels of design engineer and you were never treated as inferior to anyone else. Students are given tasks that require them to make their own engineering decisions based on their own judgement as well as being able to input your own design style in other tasks.

The experience that I have gained whilst on my placement as well as the new and developed skills will be paramount in my degree studies and further. You are fully immersed in the entire design process, from concept stage to production with valuable insight into other areas of the company as well as a massive intake of knowledge of the engineering world. Much of what I have learnt on my placement year has built upon previous knowledge from university. It will initially feel like a steep learning curve (especially with CAD) but it is all extremely beneficial.

The atmosphere in the office was always very friendly but also very work orientated. People would have short chats and team leaders etc wouldn't mind provided work was actually getting done. Leaving speeches were common from team leaders, cake was common everyone gets on really well but the seating arrangements aren't set up terribly well for socialising.

The placement was on the whole very well organised and most induction sessions etc were set up well. Workload meetings with your supervisor checked how you were getting on with your work as well as being used as an opportunity to set you more work when it was required so that you weren't sat there doing nothing. However, certain induction sessions, the people who were meant to be running them didn't realise that they were meant to be doing it/when they were meant to be doing it and so these were sometimes rearranged to later dates.

Personal training and development was a large part of the first few months of placement, with training in CAD and other areas such as how to correctly word things etc. There were a number of CAD training workshops throughout the year with helped a great deal with a lot of the work set. Departmental inductions also gave you a valuable insight into other areas of the company and also introduced you to people who you may need to deal with later on in the placement. Some training areas students were favoured to go on however as they may forget it by the time/if they come back.

Although I haven't yet finished my placement, I would love to come back to work for Triumph after graduating. Its great to be part of a company that is so proud of what they do and how well they look after their own, as well as being involved in extremely interesting and engaging work throughout the year.

There was a good social scene amongst both placement students and colleagues, we stayed in a hotel for 6 weeks while we got to know eachother and decided who to live with, and from there we would still be round each others houses etc a few times a week and go places together. There was also a good social scene amongst colleagues as there were many team do's/pub trips as well as some people going for rideouts after work.

The cost of living for what you get is extremely cheap in the Hinckley area compared to university. An expensive house will cost you about £250 per per person per month which enables you to get a nice house in a nice area, compared the to tiny attic style rooms at university.

Nightlife in Hinckley is pretty poor, with a few clubs and not bars you have to travel elsewhere. Places such as Burbage, Leicester and Nottingham are all relatively close by and are much better for nights out or things to do in the evening, especially as they are much more student orientated than Hinckley.

There were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, such as pub trips, motorcycle rides and meals out. Placement students also went to the gym together and would do other things outside of work together virtually every weekend and every other day during the week which keeps you busy despite the long work hours (not on a Friday)